Review: The 100

I started watching the show The 100 one weekend after seeing a post on tumblr. The post had screenshots of a powerpoint titled "Why You Should Be Watching The 100." These types of posts somehow convince me to watch shows, because I've watched six or seven series' based on powerpoints (The 100, Arrow, Glee, Orphan Black, Misfits, etc.). Some have been hits (Orphan Black), others have been misses (Misfits), and some have been a bit of both (Arrow). None of them have impressed me more than The 100.

Because of my nature, and because he first season was on Netflix, I watched all 13 episodes in one weekend, just in time for Season 2 to start on The CW. The description for the show on IMDB is: "Set 97 years after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization, when a spaceship housing humanity's lone survivors sends 100 juvenile delinquents back to Earth in hopes of possibly re-populating the planet." Pretty interesting concept right? Well it's so much more than that. Without spoiling too much, here is a list of four reasons why I am so enamoured with this series.

1. The moral gray area where the show, and its characters, live.

The Ark, a dying spaceship, has way too many humans and not enough resourses...or oxygen. Therefore, any and all crime is punishable by death. Steal bread? Kill someone? Have more than one child? You are ejected out of the spaceship into the deep, airless abyss. The exception to this law is children; they are locked up and held until they can be "reviewed" at eighteen. At the start of the show, instead of holding these children in detention until review, they send all 100 down to Earth in an experiment to test whether it is livable or not. Pretty messed up right? The kids think so too.

2. The reality of invasion, of war, and of survival.

Plain and simple, not all the characters we start off with live; some die in the first episode, some in the next few. By the second season, we are down to about 42 of the 100 that are still alive, and the numbers continue to dwindle. The children have to learn how to survive on their own, establish some sort of civilization, and fight the "evils" (another gray area) they awoke when they crashed onto earth, and they have to do it alone. Indeed, these children find out that they are both alone, and not alone, on the unfamiliar ground. It is so interesting to see how the 100 rise, fall, and rise again.

3. The main characters and casting

One of the reasons the powerpoint used to convince people to watch the show is the diversity in cast. The main character, Clark, is a woman, who proves to be one of the strongest female character's I've seen since Buffy. There are 2 other women in the main "group," who aren't white. Actually, less than half of the main characters are white! I really appreciate the representation in the cast, and though there haven't been any openly lgbta characters so far, the writers have gone on the record saying that it's going to happen soon.

4. The character development and story development

The one thing I can go on and on and on about is the character development in this show!!! Every episode has the characters grow in one way or another. In the beginning you hate one character and by the end of the season, he's your favorite, and the reverse happens too! Even the minor characters show growth over time. It is just incredible. Furthermore, the writers do a fantastic job moving the story forward. Every time you think that the writers are forgetting about some facet of human nature, it shows up in the next episode! I would love to learn from these writers (or maybe even work on the show) and ask them how they do it.

There are so many other reasons why I love this show, but I don't want to bore you. I think it is one of the best shows The CW has ever produced, and possibly one of the best shows on television this season. I definitely recommend giving it a shot if you haven't yet. If this post doesn't convince you, just look at the poster! "Survival isn't who you are. It's who you become." Damn.

#The100 #CW #Review #Television